Looking for a tasty serving of eggs and toast? Or a bit more? Hoping our trials can help avoid your errors! My husband and I eat breakfast out each Thursday, our day off. We have moved to Salisbury from London, so now head out by foot into town or by car into the Wiltshire coutryside on the hunt for a Cafe (pronounced "caff"). We share our collected experiences, and keep you up to date with the new venues we discover each week. Here goes...

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Rochester - Legends Cafe

After a 45 minute drive southeast, through a cold grey Kent morning, we arrive at the Legends Cafe, one of our favourites, for an early morning brekky in Rochester.  At 7:00 am the cafe exudes warmth, the heat quickly fogging up our spectacles. 


Soon Happy Husband gleefully holds his cup of piping hot tea!  Yes, they happily provide a substantial pitcher of hot milk upon request.  

"Historic Rochester" brochures boldly proclaim "where legends were created," thus the cafe name.  Not sure Dickens or Wellington actually ate here, but Dickens surely walked the street!  And William the Conqueror probably passed nearby assessing the spot for the Rochester Castle, the keep of which holds the grand honour of being the tallest keep in England at 113 feet high. (Don't trust my history lessons to be exact; it's the two eggs on toast I'm after.  But I do love Rochester.)




So, going with the theme, Legends Cafe's decor focuses on Hollywood Legends.  We figure eight framed photos constitute a theme. 
Back to the eggs and toast...Happy Husband's smile attests that we're pleased with our meal.  The toast is thick and perfectly toasted.  They don't poach eggs, but the fried eggs run when pierced, just as they should.  The £2 price is a pleasant 50p less than most cafes we've found.  





The counter staff provides friendly and pleasant assistance.  We overhear a stead flow of women's chat covering topics from tropical fish to family stuff, but not so loud as to be bothersome. 

The real treat at this place is no noise!  No music.  No loud cappuccino machines. No TV.  Just a peaceful warm space in which to enjoy the newspapers provided and the Women's Weekly we brought along. Okay, we did hear a bit of noise...the air hand-dryer in the loo and the milk steamer she used for our hot milk. But that's it.  And the loos --- on site and very clean!


Overall, the cafe presents a clean and pleasant atmosphere, plenty of seats for all, and a menu board with lots of choices.  Enough working men chow down a hot meal or come in to grab takeaway to provide our desired connected-to-the-community feeling. 
There's free parking out back, but we like to park at the Castle Parking area, then walk around the Cathedral (built in 1060), ambling along a tree-lined pathway through a park, then up the street to Legends. 
We complete a circle back to the car, walking down the historic high street that always delights with its Dickens-links, tea shops, book stores, charity shops (op shops for those of you in Oz; thrift stores for the North Americans) and today -- a cat in the window above the butcher's!  Look closely and you'll spot the cat stretching it's full height up the left side of the window above Capon's Butcher shop.
So, there you have it...another tasty Thursday morning breakfast in Britain.  We'll be back to where legends are created! See you next week....




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